Puncture wounds like the one you describe are particularly dangerous due to other organisms in addition to Pseudomonas spp. The anerobic soil bacteria, Clostridium tetani, can infect deep puncture wounds where anerobic conditions deep in the wound allow it to grow. This bacteria synthesizes endotoxins and causes a disease called tetanus. If you have not had a tetanus vaccination within the last 10 years you should get one. The vaccination is pretty safe, whereas antibiotics can have serious side effects and should not be taken unless a positive culture indicates a bacteria infection is present. The culture should also indicate the least harmful antibiotic that the bacteris is susceptible to. Also, if you haven't done so yet, the wound should be irrigated with sterile saline using a syringe. This can be effectice at washing out any bacteria and obviating the need for antibiotics. As for recovery time, it is impossible to say. If after a week you are not feeling better I would see a podatrist.

I agree with twoshuzz. Unless your health problems are diet related, naturopaths are not going to be super helpful. On the flip side my daughter had a number of health problems that no western doc could puzzle out. A trip to a naturopath determined she was lactose intolerant as well as allergic to some very common foods. A simple change in her diet eliminated all her problems.

Also, naturopaths are weary of antibiotics for good reason, some of them have very serious side effects. I have permanent nerve damage in the entire left side of my body due to a bad reaction to an antibiotic. Most western docs do not consider potential side effects of the drugs they prescribe. A palliative care doc prescribed a ketamine creme for my burns. (Yes, the date rape drug). I asked him if it was safe to use on open, raw skin and he said no problem. I asked the pharmacist the same question and she said "Good G-D, no! I need to call your doc to set him straight!".

I'll agree with the last few posts about seeing a real doc. Tetanus shot, thorough cleaning, watch for signs of infection.....yep, pretty much whats been said already. You may also consider instead of just a Tetanus shot getting your TDAP.

Pertussis (whooping cough) is at almost epidemic proportions in several states right now, and even though adults may not show any symptoms or their symptoms aren't severe, it is easy to pass on to infants and children where it tends to be a much more severe infection, such as pneumonia. Easy to just get 3 for 1 shot and cost is pretty much the same.

When your foot gets infected, you have an air-tight malpractice lawsuit.

Naturopaths cannot prescribe drugs. No malpractice suit there.

Also, there is no small claims court for medical malpractice. No lawyer will take a case on contingency unless you die, lose a limb, or are otherwise horribly and irrevesibly fucked up. I burst a disk at work. Because it was an on the job injury I went to a 'special' doctor that deals with on the job injuries. These are doctors who are so bad they can't get work even as military or prison docs. The reason for this is L&I pays so little and requires a lot of paperwork. He misdiagnosed me with a muscle pull. The disk became infected and eight torturous months later I had to have two surgies and a 6 week hospital stay to replace two infected vertebrae. The team of four orthopedic surgeons each said it was the largest surgery they had scrubbed in on. My vertebrae were the consistency of "cottage cheese" from the osteomylitis. I was plenty fucked up, but because I had an extrodinarily skillful surgeon I made a good recovery (the L&I doc released me from his care, said I was faking a back injury to scam drugs and time off work so I was able to get a private practice doc. He even misread the MRI, the same MRI the surgeon looked at for 5 seconds and told me I need emergency surgery otherwise I would die). I still have nerve problems and cannot have kids, but returned to running ultra marathons and climbing big hard mountains. No lawyer would take my case, my outcome was simply too good to get a large judgment or settlement.

"the best thing is for your body to pustulate those out". Really?! The best thing is to develop an infection and not to clean the wound to allow for a rapid, non-infectious recovery?

A splinter can pustulate out without a severe infection setting in. I've had big pieces of cactus spines that have been in me for weeks to months, then suddenly popped out (you can imagine the rest of the stuff that comes out). But once I had a spine wound that got infected, and within 2 days I had red streaks radiating out from the site. The doc immediately gave me antibiotics. The streaks cleared up within a day, and eventually the spine popped out in the normal way.

On average, I have had at least one large spine/splinter per month for 10 years-- the foreign objects either came out by pustulation, or via sharp knife and tweezers. Only that one got badly infected; that spine punched up through the side of my boot, probably taking a lot of skin flora with it.